The disclosure relates, in general, to systems and method for vehicle virtual towing, and more specifically to introducing multi-point virtual towing and determining a best multi-point virtual tow route schedule.
Vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication provides a means for vehicles to exchange information among each other including vehicle position, current speed, rate or incidence of acceleration and deceleration, and braking status. Several applications are being proposed using V2V communications as a foundational technology. One example of a V2V application is virtual towing or electronic towing. In virtual towing one vehicle “trailer” follows a preceding vehicle “tractor” using wirelessly exchanged information without the need for physical attachment between the two vehicles. Such functionality mimics traditional vehicle towing where the trailer is physically attached to the tractor. Virtual towing can serve in scenarios where the towed vehicle driver is incapable of driving or if the towed vehicle is not occupied. Virtual towing serves as a comfort application as well, where it can alleviate driving stress from the towed vehicle driver.
Numerous projects have investigated car following in the past (e.g. PATH). One example of car following concepts that utilize V2V communications is Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC). However, CACC is usually viewed as an extension to Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) which implements only longitudinal control with the driver retaining responsibility for the host vehicle lateral control. In virtual towing, the driver of the trailer is not responsible for control. Further, the trailer may not be occupied.
Several studies have investigated a virtual trailer link model for a pair of vehicles using vehicle sensors, V2V communication, or a combination. One challenge associated with virtual towing is the limit imposed by the inconstancy between trailer and tractor routes. If both vehicles have the same starting point with different destinations, then their paths will separate at a certain point XS. As a result, the tractor guides the trailer only as far as the XS.